Macroscopic degeneracy and emergent frustration in a honeycomb lattice magnet

Phys Rev Lett. 2011 Aug 12;107(7):076405. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.076405. Epub 2011 Aug 11.

Abstract

Using a hybrid method based on fermionic diagonalization and classical Monte Carlo techniques, we investigate the interplay between itinerant and localized spins, with competing double- and superexchange interactions, on a honeycomb lattice. For moderate superexchange, a geometrically frustrated triangular lattice of hexagons forms spontaneously. For slightly larger superexchange a dimerized ground state is stable that has macroscopic degeneracy. The presence of these states on a nonfrustrated honeycomb lattice highlights novel phenomena in this itinerant electron system: emergent geometrical frustration and degeneracy related to a symmetry intermediate between local and global.